Aston Martin V8 Vantage

The Vantage Roadster is a high performance sports car. With 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.0 seconds (0-60 mph in 4.9 seconds) and a potential maximum speed of 280 km/h (175 mph) its performance figures are as heady as you would expect of an Aston Martin.
This new V8 has been specifically designed and developed for the Vantage Roadster and Vantage Coupé. Hand assembled at Aston Martin’s purpose-built engine facility in Cologne, Germany, it is a light, compact, all-alloy unit – high performance yet ultra-responsive even at the lower end of the rev range. Its maximum torque is an impressive 410 Nm (302 lb ft) @ 5000 rpm, 75 per cent of which is delivered at just 1500 rpm – barely more than idle – making the Roadster extremely tractable and great fun to drive. Push harder, and that V8 engine revs freely, delivering refined, exhilarating pace.

The flexibility of the engine and the easy-touse controls make everyday town or city driving simple and uncomplicated. Electronic safety controls provide further reassurance. Braking power is awesome, with massive disc brakes – 355 mm diameter at the front, 330 mm at the rear – that are both ventilated and grooved. For the Vantage Roadster, grooving is a better solution than conventional cross-drilling of the discs, as they work more effectively with the brake pads and do not fill with brake pad dust. There’s a choice of two alloy wheel styles – 18 inch or 19 inch in diameter – fitted with specially tuned high-performance tyres.
The fast-shifting, six-speed Graziano manual gearbox, with ratios perfectly matched to the performance of the V8 engine, is joined by Aston Martin’s new Sportshift automated manual transmission. This ultra-quick system provides the driver with Formula 1-style fingertip control of gear changes, using steering wheel-mounted paddles to progress smoothly and swiftly through the ratios.